Wayward Souls of Iron
by Sol Kyoshiro
Summary: What if Madara Uchiha had beaten Hashirama Senju at the Valley of the End? What if everything you know of Naruto was different? The alternate timeline of a much darker Naruto is within.
1. Beginnings

Naruto stared absently out the window, biting his fingernails as his mind raced.

"How long do you intend to stare out into nothingness Naruto?"

Naruto turned around to see Matsu staring him down just inside the doorway.

"I have to be ready for when father returns. In case...in case there are injured."

Matsu slowly walked over to where Naruto was perched. Even though Matsu was taller than Naruto the boy always felt like he was just a shadow in his presence. These days it felt like Naruto was being ever more distant, ever more dark. The time was finally coming and everyone could feel the cold hand of death on one shoulder. Matsu ran his hand through his short wavy mass of dark hair. Matsu had always envied Naruto in that regard, his bright almost luminous color made him quite popular with the ladies. Not that Naruto ever noticed.

Matsu reached over and placed a reassuring hand on Naruto's shoulder "If anyone is capable of keeping the team safe it's your father. Either way sitting here worrying yourself isn't going to help. You need to be strong for the others, you're the new generations symbol of hope and promise."

Naruto sighed, leaning back in his chair for a second, contemplating the wisdom of Matsu's words. " Yea yea I know. I just should be out there right now with my father and the team. Not trying to teach the new kids Kage Bunshins."

Naruto stood up, placing his hands on the window. It had been snowing now for fourteen days straight which while was depressing to Matsu, seemed to delight the elders. According to them it was harder to detect the village in the snow while letting them go on more recon missions than normal. It was all very logical to everyone but Matsu. He couldn't help but long for bright skies and a warm sun on his face, it had been so very long since he had seen that.

"Your teachings inspire the kids Naruto, hell it inspires me. The more they learn, the more we ALL learn, the sooner we can go back." Matsu slowly rolled up the left sleeve of his shirt and showed it to Naruto. "This scar aches Naruto. It aches for revenge, for vengeance, and for atonement. I can't reach those by myself. I'll do whatever it takes to make things right."

Naruto's gaze drifted from the snowy visage outside to Matsu's arm. Matsu's left forearm was still horribly scarred from the fire that had consumed his whole family. It was Naruto that had pulled the boy screaming from the burning house. They had offered numerous times to have his arm healed, to erase the scars, but Matsu had refused. To Matsu his scar was a reminder, a constant reminder, that the life he lived was not his own. That his life was a gift from Naruto and his clan, and that he would use this gift to fix the broken world they lived in. A reminder that he would find and kill the men who had stolen the life of his family and in someone ways his own life.

That had been four years ago, now he lived with the Senju clan in their Hidden Village of Sky. He didn't understand why they called there village sky, at least not until he had finally arrived at the village. The makeup of the village was in fact as vast as the sky, and only in a place like this could Matsu truly fit in. Matsu was tall and wiry with a unruly head of obsidian colored hair that framed a pair of pale yellow eyes. His deeply tanned skin displayed the years of manual labor he had spent on his parents farm, a task he had been forced to do. He had always hated the long and hot days in the fields as a child. He had dreamed of being somewhere, anywhere but there. And now all he longed for was to have those days back.

Naruto finally looked up from Matsu's arm, his eyes reflecting the seriousness of Matsu's. "I understand Matsu, I understand." he stated as he walked past Matsu. "Let's go" he yelled to Matsu as he reached the door. "I suppose if I'm going to mope somewhere it shouldn't be in the teacher's lounge."

As Naruto and Matsu walked down the hallway of the ninja academy, Matsu couldn't help but laugh at how much attention Naruto got. The boys constantly wanted to show off their jutsu's to him, and the girls, well the girls just wanted Naruto to notice them. Matsu couldn't blame the boys, Naruto aptitude for jutsu was second only to Hyuuga Neji, and that was no small feat. And for the girls, well Matsu could see the popularity in Naruto's kind but serious disposition. However as far as he knew Naruto never seemed interested in any of the girls. While obviously he wouldn't have a relationship with any of the students, even in the village it was well known that Naruto simply seemed too busy to be bothered.

When they had finally reached the classroom of Class B, Naruto stopped. His hand positioned over the door handle, Naruto took in a deep breath. Matsu watched as Naruto locked away his worry and anger, no easy task, and brought out the kind and playful side that the children loved.

Finally Naruto slid the door open, "Let's get class started!" Naruto exclaimed.

* * *

Naruto's class had 20 students that he taught ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu. His kids worked hard and gave him very little problems for the most part. But still he couldn't help but long to be out in battle, to feel his adrenaline pumping. He understood what Matsu meant but Naruto was a warrior at heart. Fighting for what he loved and believed in is what fuels him at night. He had decided that he would have a serious chat with his father when he returned. Being pulled from battle detail to teach was a direct slap in the face and he had to know why.

"Sensei I don't understand why we have to learn genjutsu, its soooo hard." pouted Kina.

"Yea sensei, wouldn't it just be easier to hit them first!" yelled out Sanzu.

Naruto was having his students pair up into teams to practice casting and dispelling genjutsu. Needless to say... it wasn't going very well.

" Come on didn't you guys pay attention at all in history class?" Naruto questioned. A brief survey of flushed and embarrassed faces revealed the answer. Naruto cupped his face in frustration and took a deep breath. How was he supposed to teach kids battle techniques when they didn't even understand why they were doing it?

"Umm sensei, I know..." came a sheepish voice from his right. Naruto looked up to see little Hanabi Hyuuga with her hand up. Naruto wasn't surprised to see that Hinabi knew the answer, the Hyuuga family did not believe in incompetence in any form.

"Okay Hanabi why is it so important to know genjutsu." Naruto asked, gesturing for Hanabi to speak louder for the class.

"Because the Uchiha are masters of genjutsu. Knowing how it works and how to stop it is key to fighting them." Hinabi blushed as Naruto clapped in response to her answer.

"Very good Hinabi, that is correct. The Uchiha control every hidden village in the Land of Fire, Earth,, Water and Wind. Their numbers alone mean that if you ever end up against a Jounin level squad there will be at least one Uchiha present. Genjutsu is at its core a silent and deadly killer. It's possible to be be in a genjutsu for minutes if not hours before you realize your trapped." The class fell silent as the weight of Naruto's words hit them.

Naruto looked around the room at the faces of his students. His class in particular was a key example of how diverse Sky had become. Several of his students were holders of rare bloodline abilities. There was Hinabi Hyuuga, one of the younger Hyuuga children, but very promising for her age. Her skills in taijutsu were among the top in her class. No doubt in large part from her teachings at the hand of her older sister, Hinata. Sanzu Kaguya was his most outspoken and outgoing student. Sanzu had a bad habit of rushing into battle, consequences be damned. This wasn't really his fault as it seemed to be a trait of his clan. Though if one looked at his brother Kimimaro it was a stark contrast. The Kaguya clan was relatively new to Sky, having only been acquired nine years ago. Hiruzen and his squad had saved them from genocide at the hands of the Uchiha. Hiruzen recognized their potential battle strength and the Kaguya recognized the Sky's potential ability to fight back against the Uchiha. And then there was Kina Sarutobi . That girl was the very embodiment of trouble. Wild and untamed like her family name would suggest, Kina would often skip class to do who knew what. When Naruto had first taken over this class from Neji he had tried the hard approach with Kina. He had yelled and threatened, but none of those seemed to work on her. He had nearly given up on getting her to come class when one day he had witnessed Kina getting into a fight. At first he wasn't going to stop it as he wanted to see what Kina was made of. But his better half got the best of him and he had stepped in. It turned out that two of the boys from a different class had been making fun of Kina and calling her a boy. So Kina, as was her style, beat them up. Severely. When Naruto had explained why she couldn't just beat up people she defiantly asked why not. Naruto had patted her on the hand and simply told her because she was too cute to be caught rough housing with some ugly boys. Apparently after that Kina took a liking to Naruto and now came class.

In the end even though they caused him endless grief they were his students and he had grown fond them. However he'd still rather be in battle side by side with his father.

"Don't just stand around slack jawed, get back to practicing kids!" chastised Naruto. This time out his father hadn't even bothered to tell Naruto what the mission was, probably in fear that Naruto would just follow. A fear that wasn't unjustified. Maybe they had found another clan to recruit. Lately there had been some talks about getting the Hidden village of cloud on board, though Naruto had no idea how much of that was rumor.

Suddenly the door slide open and out of breath Hyuuga Hinata rushed in. Naruto's spine shivered as he saw her worried face.

"What is it?" he yelled out.

Hinata looked up at Naruto with pale sad eyes. Eyes wrought with despair.

"Your father...he's back."

* * *

I should have gone, I should have been there. How could I have let them go without me? These are the thoughts that kept pounding through Naruto's head as he sprinted down the steps of the Ninja Academy. He could hear the faint sound of Hinata's voice behind him, she was calling to him, but the words couldn't reach his worried mind. The world was blindingly white, the sight of the snow covered village would have been a gorgeous sight any other time.

Wait, which way was he going? When Hinata uttered the words that his father was injured he had simply lost all reason and had propelled himself outside. The medical building, that's where he had to be he told himself. The wet ground crunched underneath him as he ran headlong into the distance.

He sprinted past shocked onlookers, they recognized the look on Naruto's face and knew better than to try and greet him. As the domed building of the medical center came into view his heart sank a little bit more. If the old man wasn't seriously hurt he would be after I'm done, Naruto bitterly thought to himself. Being stuck at home during a mission was the most agonizing experience he had ever had. One which he would never do again. The wait had filled his mind with nightmares of such horror they could barely be described.

The steel gray doors of the medical center burst open as Naruto flew in like a winged horror. The medical center interior was a drab mix of muted grays and bright clinical whites. Only a single blue strip down the center of the hallway brought color to the space. The attending nurse looked up with wide eyes as the orange haired fury named Naruto came barreling toward her.

"MY FATHER, WHERE IS HE?" Naruto yelled out, as he slapped the counter. The nurse clearly scared by his sudden appearance cringed back ever so slightly.

"Wh-wha-what?" she stuttered out.

"UZUMAKI MINATO! WHICH ROOM IS HE IN!" he repeated angrily, Naruto was clearly losing his patience at this point

"R-r-room 103 but...", the nurse whimpered. Before she could even fully finish her sentence Naruto was off and running again.

Only Naruto's strict ninja training kept him from crashing into innocent passerby's as he rushed down the hallway. Neither person nor object was in a position to stop him as he made a beeline toward his father's hospital room. Naruto knew he was approaching the right room when he saw the two samurai posted outside of the room. There at ease posture was truly a misnomer for the trained units known as samurai. Even though Naruto had grown up around the samurai he had always instinctually known to never trifle with them. The air around them was one of total and utter seriousness to the job. The samurai in there stark white armor was always an impressive yet intimidating sight. The full mask complete with filter gave them an almost inhuman look, the commanders who sported a pair of sharpened horns atop there head especially seemed like demons.

But this day Naruto heeded them no attention as he rushed past them and into the room. The two samurai looked at each with knowing eyes, eyes that seemed to sigh, oh... Naruto. Naruto stopped for a second as he took in his surroundings. To the left of him leaning against the wall was Sarutobi Hiruzen, one of the most respected ninja in the village. Hiruzen at one time had led the village and was largely responsible for the creation of the samurai of the Land of Iron. Next to him was his son Sarutobi Asuma. Asuma at first glance was the epitome of a non-threatening personality. His easy and laid back demeanor automatically put even the most guarded ninja at ease. Asuma was tall with a head of hair that always seemed to jut up and out, his face seemed to match his hair as his goatee was as sharply pointed. In his mouth was the ever present cigarette that Asuma seemed unable to quit. But Naruto knew all too well that at heart Asuma was as efficient of a killer as any ninja could hope to be. His weapon training under Asuma had been long and brutal, but thanks to him Naruto feared no other man.

As Naruto slowly walked across the shockingly large hospital room he grew more nervous with each foot step. Just ahead of him was the curtain that separated the two beds of the hospital room. What would he find on the other side? The range of the people in the room did nothing to ease his turmoiled heart. Holding onto Asuma's arm was his wife Kurenai. Naruto, like many of the boys in the village, grew up with a crush on the heart achingly beautiful Kurenai. Kurenai's wild and unique spiral eyes caused every man's heart to skip a beat. Her long and raven dark hair only caused her eyes to stand out that much more. Her beauty however was only matched by her unending kindness. She was the kind of person who couldn't see someone in trouble and not be compelled to help. It made her an exceptionally deceptive ninja though; perhaps it's why Asuma and Kurenai were destined for each other. But like Asuma, Kurenai's gentle nature ended at the point of her kunai. As Naruto looked over at the two of them Kurenai looked up and gave Naruto her trademark slow but tender smile.

Naruto stepped closer to the curtain. He could now see Shizune, the head of the medical nin division. It was rare to see Shizune out and about around the town. She normally reserved all her time to research, and study. Upon seeing her Naruto knew that what was behind the curtain would change things. He was finally at the curtain edge. The curtain seemed like an insurmountable cliff that was guarding him yet taunting him at the same time. Naruto stopped for a second and closed his eyes, and then stepped around the curtain.

"Naruto? What are you doing here, shouldn't you still be teaching class?"

Naruto stopped. He was staring face to face into the eyes of his father. A father that up till a second ago he feared gravely wounded, a father that was now disciplining him.

"I...I heard you were back and injured. I thought the worse and came running." he mumbled. Naruto took a second to look over his father. Minato and Naruto looked so much alike that it was impossible for anyone to not know they were father and son. It was because of their similar nature that Naruto always seemed to butt heads with his father. Minato's right arm was in a sling, and he had some scratches on his face. But besides that he seemed relatively uninjured.

"Dammit didn't Hinata properly deliver my message?" Minato sighed. He seemed particularly short today, Naruto knew something was wrong.

"Yea she said you were back"

"NA-NARUTO!"

Naruto turned around to a very irate Hinata.

"Hey my dad is alright Hi-"

"Dammit Naruto that's what I was trying to tell you! I came to tell you that he was alright, but you just ran off like a possessed man." she panted out. She stared angrily at Naruto and for a second he thought he was going to get a Gentle Fist to the face. But instead she just sighed.

"I'm sorry sir, he ran off before I could deliver the whole message"

"Eh its alright Hinata, I should have known better than to be believe that my boneheaded son would wait to hear a whole message."

Naruto stood for a second as now both of them were staring at him. Gentle fist AND Rasengan to the face. How the hell did he end up being the ass?

"So...what happened father? It's rare for you to come back injured. And where's Grandpa and Grandma?"

Silence descended upon the room. Naruto finally took a second to survey all the people in the room. Asuma, Hiruzen, Kurenai, Shizune and Hinata to his left. He realized for the first time that his mother, Kushina was standing at the window. To the right of his mother was Mitarashi Anko, head of sky's special forces unit, ANBU. Anko was famous for bad temper as she was her fun wild side. But today the look on her face was all business. Next to her was Hyuuga Hizashi, the head of the Hyuuga clan, Neji's father and the head of their Anti-Sharingan taskforce. Although Naruto had become close friends with Neji, he had only met Hizashi on few occasions. Hizashi was a man of few words but when he spoke people knew to listen. Next to him was Hizashi's twin brother, Hiashi. Hiashi was Hinata's father and the second in command of the Anti-Sharingan taskforce. And lastly leaning against the right wall was Kyuga Kizaki, the head of the Kaguya clan, Kimimaro's father and the head of the Sky's defense force.

Assembled in this room was the head of every major clan in Sky and the entirety of the ruling council. Naruto looked around for a second, all but two that is. Naruto stopped at looked at his mother who was doing her best to avoid Naruto's questioning look.

"Umm father, where is Grandpa and Grandma?

The silence persisted.

"DAD!"

"Naruto lower your tone this instant!" Kushina barked at Naruto.

Minato lifted his hand to gesture to Kushina that it was okay.

"Its fine Kushina, Naruto deserves to hear the truth. He's earned that respect"

Minato paused for a second and looked up at the ceiling, as if the white tiles would give him the explanation that he would soon deliver to Naruto.

"Your grandparents, Jiraiya and Tsunade, have been captured by the Uchiha."


	2. Departure

As Naruto walked through the snowy streets of Sky Village the words of his father echoed in his head. He had known that Grandpa Jiriaya, Grandma Tsunade, Anko, and his father had gone to the Land of Lightning on an emissary mission. While all the other Hidden Villages had long since been folded under the mantle of the Uchiha Empire, Hidden Cloud was the last standing bastion. The power of the Raikage bloodline was so great that even the Uchiha's were unable to totally conquer the village.

Part of the reason for their success was because the position of the Land of Lightning made it the easiest country to defend. It was surrounded on all sides but one by the ocean. To enter the land you had to trek through the unforgiving frigid terrain of the Land of Frost. This tactical advantage combined with the strength of their fighting force had enabled them to fight off the Uchiha for over 100 years, although not without its consequences. The Uchiha had made it so that Hidden Cloud had no trade, no allies, no one to lean on in times of need. Then through their control of the media and the public they had made it appear as if the Hidden Cloud had gone rogue through their desire for power. While never directly stated, anyone wise enough knew that to deal with the Hidden Cloud meant to mark yourself as a traitor to the Uchiha

Over the years Sarutobi and others had tried to broker a partnership with Hidden Cloud to no avail. The Hidden Cloud had long since grown use to their isolation and saw no benefit to teaming with the refugee village of Sky. The Raikage felt that they were more than capable of defending their country by themselves. While on the surface this seemed like selfish pride, the fact of the matter is that they were right. They were a village of specialized melee fighters, an aspect that clashed with the tactics of Sharingan.

However recent intelligence had shown that the special ops division of the Uchiha Empire, Akatsuki, had set up a forward base dangerously close to Cloud's borders. Sky had seen this tactic all too often in the past. Scouts and other easy targets along the borders would be kidnapped and experimented on. The head of the Experimental Science branch of Akatsuki, Orochimaru, had devised a jutsu that allowed them to read a ninja's mind postmortem. Through the slow but steady process of gathering easy targets they were able to gain enough knowledge to find weakness's in defenses. This process had allowed them to win the First and only Great Ninja War.

So they had sent a team to Hidden Cloud to warn the Raikage of these dangers and to once again beseech them to become allies against the Uchiha. It was a simple run that they had done dozens of times before. Well at least had been simple until this time.

Naruto shoved his hands in the pockets of his parka and grit his teeth in anger as he replayed his fathers misguided words.

"Captured? How is that possible father? Those two are a force of nature in the battlefield!" Naruto had been unable to grasp the concept of Jiriaya and Tsunade being captured by any force, Uchiha or otherwise.

"We were intercepted by a patrol squad shortly after landing on the southside of Lightning, Jiriaya and Tsunade stayed behind to ensure that Minato escaped safely" Anko had explained. He could tell by the look in Anko's steel grey eyes that she felt that they had made the correct choice. He however could see by the drop in his father's shoulders that he didn't share that feeling.

"We have to mount a rescue team immediately. Luckily Neji, Kimimaro and Kiba are back from assignments. We can be geared and ready to head out within the hour." Naruto had slipped into team leader mode effortlessly, already putting the tactical assignments together in his head.

"No."

"True, maybe we need a long range type like TenTen to come with us. She's a little hard to control but delivers results. Especially when paired with Neji."

"No to the rescue Naruto. We can't risk going back in yet. There's more going on than we know. They were far too prepared for us, something is wrong about the whole situation. They exactly where to find us"

Naruto had stared open mouthed at his father's reluctance to rescue his own parents, to save two of the village elders, to save two people who had put their lives on the line to save him.

"How can you say that father? We can't just…leave them? Who knows what is happening to them right now!" Naruto's words heated up as he thought of his grandparents being tortured by Akatsuki.

"NARUTO! You heard Minato, he gave you a direct order. We can't do anything until we know more." Anko had yelled at him. Anko had always been one to follow his father's words like law. She was the model of the good soldier, devoted to the cause. At times he had admired her strength, even had a crush on her as a child. But right now in this instance he hated her just a little for her inability to defy orders as asinine as this.

Naruto had looked around the room at the faces around him. His mother was doting on his father, trying her hardest to be impartial to the conversation. Shizune was staring off into the distance, her face unreadable. Kurenai was giving Naruto that look she always gave him when he had an outburst, the look of a seemingly wise adult gazing at a seemingly idiotic child. Asuma looked as if he wanted to agree with Naruto but wasn't sure enough to disobey his father. Hiruzen was giving Naruto a look of displeasure at being so out of line. And Hinata had her hands in front of her, head down, trying her best to make herself be unassuming.

A room full of elders and commanders and yet he felt like he had been the only one with reason or honor.

"This is bullshit and you know it father." Naruto spit out as he turned and walked toward the door.

Minato shouted at him as Naruto stormed out, "Don't you dare disobey me Naruto. Your passion is understandable but it's clouding your judgment. Only fools rush in Naruto and these days in the land we live in, fools die first."

Now Naruto was walking through a sea of pristine white snow, trying his hardest to calm down. Who cared about the dangers, that came with the job these days. The instant Tobirama Senju and his clan had been exiled so many years ago danger and death had immediately became his clan's mistress. The real question was how do you react to it? Did you roll over and die, resigned to your fate? Do you run and hide, cowering at your shadow as you waited for the cold embrace of death? Or do you climb to the top of the nearest mountain and dare death to show its ugly face. For so many years his father had taught him to always challenge death when it reared its ugly head. He would always tell Naruto, nothing was final until they close the casket. His father had always been morbid in his teachings, but realistic. Naruto had seen enough of his friends and elders be killed in their secret war against the Uchiha. He understood the need for caution and the value of good intel.

But this was family they were talking about. Above duty, above caution, came blood. No matter the situation Grandpa Jiraiya had always been funny and often perverted. He seemed to share the passion that Naruto had in him to protect the things that he loved. It was ultimately Jiraiya who had helped him perfect Rasengan, even though his father had invented the technique. Jiraiya had always explained to him that Minato was only strict with him because he needed Naruto to become strong. Strong enough to come home from a mission every time, strong enough to face the world they lived in.

Naruto came out of his thoughts long enough to miss running into a grain cart coming down the road. He blinked as he realized that his walk had taken him all the way across the village and almost to the bluff that overlooked the rest of the Land of Iron. Jiraiya had first shown him the spot after he had graduated from the academy. He told him that when he sat there overlooking the land it gave him a sense of what he was protecting. That if he ever felt lost, this view gave him purpose and the will to fight on.

As Naruto slowly approached the edge of the bluff he stopped to take in the view. As puffy snowflakes slowly descended from the overcast sky he gazed upon the land he had grown up in. The view looked all the way across the Northern portion of the island and if you squinted you could almost see the line of ocean beyond it. The round domes of the houses seemed to jut out of the land like thousands of bumps upon the horizon. The first time he had seen this view he had instantly understood what his grandfather had meant.

The Land of Iron was literally a land of exiles and refugees, people cast out by the rest of the world. When Madara Uchiha had assumed control o Hidden Leaf and began his conquest to "unite" the ninja villages, many clans had rebelled. None of them wanted uniform control, certainly not under a former mercenary group like the Uchiha. However without the Senju around to balance the Uchiha, they had stomped out a majority of their competition within a few years. The Senju then started gathering those clans under their banner in the hopes of opposing the Uchiha. But the Senju had underestimated how many villages just wanted to avoid a major war against an enemy that seemed capable of reading their minds.

In the end Tobirama Senju and his followers had retreated completed from the Land of the Five Great nations, taking to the sea in search of a home to call their own. They had found the Island of Iron a few weeks later and decided to settle there. Eventually they helped create a fighting force that directly opposed the concept of ninja's, the samurai. Using them as a disguise for their own village, the Senju clan hid beneath the shadow of the samurai they had created. All the while they rescued small clans and bloodlines from being erased by the Uchiha. The first to join had been Naruto's clan, the Uzumaki clan. Their unique bloodline was a threat to the Uchiha and their quest to control the Bijuu. The next would be the Hyuuga clan, their unique Doujutsu gave them an advantage to fighting against the Sharingan. Over time they had absorbed the Kaguya, Mitarashi, Inuzuka, Yuhi, and Kato clans. Most recently they had also gained a few survivors of a foreign clan that had almost been obliterated by the Uchiha when they tried to migrate to the Land of Fire.

Sky Village was a blended family in its truest sense and the diversity was its strength. He knew all the reasons he had to protect it. He also knew the reasons why he would disobey his father. He couldn't involve the others on his mission. He was the only one who could risk disobeying his father and not be exiled from Sky. He knew his father would never disown him, no matter how out of line he was.

Naruto stood up, empowered by the magnificent view of the village. He now knew what he would have to do.

"I know you didn't think you were just gonna walk your happy ass off without us" a voice quipped from behind him.

Naruto turned around into the eyes of the only people crazy enough to follow him into danger. Hinata smiled at the puzzled look on Naruto's face.

"I told them what happened and there was no stopping them," Hinata explained through a wicked grin.

Standing before him with determined looks was Hinata's brother and his best friend, Neji Hyuuga, the quiet but formidable Kimimaro Kaguya, the goofy but steadfast Kiba Inuzuka and the seriously intimidating Tenten.

"Look guys I appreciate it but I can't ask you to do this. We're disobeyi-"

Neji held up a hand, abruptly cutting him off. "Leave no man behind right? Orders are only good as long as we have a moral core to stand those on. I owe the old man as much as anyone else. "

"Yes, while I normally would follow orders, I do feel that in this case direct action is the best solution." Kimimaro stated matter of factly. The cool and calm look on Kimimaro's face made it seem as if they were going on a stroll instead of going AWOL.

"Someone has to watch out for you fools" huffed Tenten. Naruto knew that while she was pretending to be an overseer she was really going because of Neji. She had taken quite the liking to Neji over the few years she had been in the village.

Only Kiba had no empowering statement for the cause. When Kiba finally realized that everyone was looking at him he just shrugged his shoulders and yawned, "Was getting bored anyway".

Everyone paused at Kiba's blunt statement and then erupted into laughter. They were more than just ninja's and samurai's on Iron, they were a family. And you just didn't abandon that, not for anything.

"Well then let's gear up guys, I want us up and stealing a boat within the hour!"

* * *

"That foolish son of mine is probably going to go anyway" Minato mumbled to himself as he stared out the window. Kushina slowly looked up from her book and gave him a curious eyebrow.

"I remember a certain man who at his age was always disobeying his father's orders and running into battle. Fighting kids in school over honor and duty and gathering a ragtag band of friends who would fight under him."

Minato coughed, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Kushina laughed softly, leaned over and kissed her husband's forehead.

"It'll be ok; he's not a kid anymore dear. He's grown up quite well."

"Yea but he has a tendency to be a lone wolf in an effort to keep others out of trouble" Minato's brow creased with worry as he thought about the rashness of his son's actions.

"That's why I told Hinata to get his friends and go with him" Kushina stated haphazardly.

"You did what Kushina?" Minato's head snapped over at her in disbelief that she would add them in their quest to disobey orders.

"What you didn't think I'd let my child go out their alone did you? If he's going to run off and act like his FATHER he may as well have good backup."

Minato still couldn't believe it. It was one thing for Naruto to run off, but another thing for Kushina to help him do so.

"Well now we know where he gets his stubbornness from," grumbled Minato as he laid back down in his stiff hospital bed.

Kushina stared at him for a second and then looked back down at her book.

"Mm hmmm, like father like son."

****Please review the story! I have a lot planned for this story and I want to know if everyone sees things the same way I do!****


	3. Prison Tales

"Meal time scum" echoed a gruff voice followed by the hollow click of the feeding window opening. A dingy metal tray slid forth and slammed onto the ground, partially spilling some of its contents. The guard leaned down just a bit to peer through the slot to make sure the prisoner was still alive. Sitting in the middle of the tiny dimly lit, dank cell sat the large frame of Jiraiya. He was sitting with his legs crossed, palms out across his knees and eyes closed.

"All the mediation in the world can't help you now you Senju trash," hissed the guard.

"Namikaze."

The guard paused at Jiraya's single word.

"What?"

Jiraiya slowly opened his eyes, gazing across the room and directly into the guard's eyes.

"I'm from the Namikaze clan, my wife is a Senju. If you're going to insult me at least get it right."

The guards face flushed at Jiraiya's quip, his smug smile disappearing from his face.

"Well I'll make sure to give your Senju bitch my regards the next time I enter her cell," the guard held his hands up to the slot so Jiraiya could see the foul hand gesture he was making.

Jiraiya nodded slightly and rubbed his chin. After a second he tilted his head sideways and with a small smile asked, "What's your name guard? I'm sorry I forgot my manners. My name is Jiraiya, nice to meet you. But as I was saying, what is your name?

Once again the guard was struck by Jiraiya's question. He stared at the prisoner for a second, gauging as to if his question was serious or not.

"I suppose you should know the name of the man that's going to be plowing your cow proper. My name is Renku. Curse the name at night when you're hearing the sweet sound of your whore being pleasured by a real man." The guard laughed as if his threat was so full of humor that he couldn't help but chuckle.

Jiraiya joined in with the man's laughter. After a few seconds of their conjoined laughter the guard stopped and sneered at him.

"What's so funny NAMIKAZE trash? Finally accepting your fate?"

Jiraiya slowly leaned forward closer to the feeding slot, his grin slowly disappearing into a look of deadly seriousness.

"What's funny is two things. One, if you are foolish enough to try and touch my wife you will quickly find yourself with a number of broken body parts at best. At worst you will find yourself riding a unicycle with no steering column. The second thing is that while I have no doubts as to the fact that you are incapable of plowing my wife due to your deficiencies as a man, your words will not go unpunished. When we escape, and trust me, we will escape, you will be the first man I strike. And as you lay on the ground quivering as my chakra rips through your fragile body I will smile. I will smile because in the end you are nothing before me, before the Namikaze, before the Senju, before Sky. And as you lay dying, gasping your last breaths you will realize that in this universe you are nothing, you are insignificant. You will not even be reborn into a true creature; you will be reborn as nothing more than a dust mite that my grandchildren will wipe from their clothes."

A wicked grin slowly spread across Jiraiya's face as he sat back into his meditation pose. The guard swallowed loudly and shut the feeding door.

* * *

Sakura Haruno slowly smiled to herself as she finished the last touches on a healing gel she had been working on.

"I think it's almost done sensei, should I go ahead and treat the wounded?" she asked as she stirred the grey gelatin concoction one last time.

Kabuto Yakushi looked up from his book, pushing his glasses up to inspect Sakura's work.

"Why Miss Haruno that looks fantastic, I do believe soon you will pass me in skill." praised Kabuto.

Sakura beamed at the compliment and blew a wisp of pink hair out of her face. Medical jutsu is something she never would have thought to learn originally. While her aptitude over chakra control had been second to none she had never quite found her calling, that signature ability that all the top ninja coveted. Try as she might, when it came to combat skills her imagination was unable to reach her aptitude. She had all but given up hope of being able to impress the Uchiha when she had by chance met Kabuto.

She was visiting a sick classmate at the hospital when her friend had started complaining of pain to her left side. Sakura had been able to feel where a chakra path was flowing irregularly and was attempting to fix in when Kabuto had entered the room.

He questioned what she was doing and right as she was about to stop he had seen something. Later on he would tell her that the look on her face had shown him that she wasn't just playing around. She was carefully looking and evaluating the chakra paths, a skill very uncommon in ninja. She didn't know it at that time, but Kabuto was one of the top doctors in Hidden Leaf's medical division. He was so impressed with her that he pulled all sorts of strings to get her into their med school immediately.

Through hard work and sweat she would eventually be noticed by the Uchiha. And by none other than Sasuke Uchiha himself. He was close to becoming appointed as the new Hokage and he would need a wife. Every unmarried kunoichi in Hidden Leaf had risen up to vie for the chance to be married to the hunky Uchiha. A friend who was close to the Uchiha clan had told her that her name was on a very short list of potentials and that Sasuke himself had been looking into her personally.

Sakura giggled to herself at the thought of being Mrs. Sakura Uchiha. She heard a loud cough and looked up to see Kabuto giving her a curious look.

"Sorry Sensei was just umm. Thinking about…. stuff. Sorry Sensei, I'll be on my way right now to treat the wounded," she stammered out. Stupid, she thought to herself. She couldn't let her mind drift to things like that at such a pivotal time.

She had been assigned to go with Kabuto personally to their forward base near the border of the Land of Frost and Land of Lightning. She knew there would be a lot of fighting soon and her skills would be needed more than ever. Not just that but there would be no better way for her to distinguish herself from the other women on the shortlist.

Sakura poured the gel from the large beaker into a smaller flask, being careful to not waste any of it. Once she was done she put a stopper on it to avoid any potential spills on the way to the infirmary. It had taken her hours to mold chakra into a stable gel and she'd be damned before it wasted on the way there.

She hadn't expected to be needed so soon, but their patrols had found a small pocket of Senju rebels along the coast. There had been a number of injuries and casualties on their side, but they had at least captured two Senju during the chaos.

She shivered at the thought of ever having to converse with a Senju. She heard about their brutish nature, never learning a particular skill, just using whatever weapons they could find. It flew in the face of the nobility of the Uchiha, their powers had a sort of finesse to it that she found intoxicating. To see the opposite in a Senju sounded like an abomination.

The latest rumors were that the Hidden Cloud had been hiring the Senju in mass in an attempt to stage a coup upon the Uchiha controlled villages. This forwarding base was the first line of defense against that, a silent threat to the Hidden Cloud that the Uchiha wouldn't let their peaceful lands be thrown into chaos for greed.

She rounded the corner and stepped into the infirmary. It was a large room that was shaped like a giant plus. In each corner was a row of gurneys with the nurses' station in the middle of the plus. Each section of the room could hold around 20 gurneys comfortably. She had been here when they had first finished building this wing and had thought to herself how hard it would be to fill all those beds. She no longer had any doubts as to that. Every single bed was filled with injured ninja's, all in the throes of some sort of pain. Her adrenaline started pumping as her walk sped up to a trot toward the nurses' station.

"What happened? There's more injured here than yesterday?" Sakura questioned to the head nurse. The nurse wearily looked up from her chart and gave Sakura a slow once over.

"And you are?" the nurse challenged.

"I'm Sakura Haruno, I'm Kabuto's apprentice, he had me bring down a new batch of healing gel." Sakura puffed up a little bit as she spoke. She didn't know this nurse, but she was a bit insulted that she would be so rude to someone she never met. As she expected the nurse lost her attitude as soon as Kabuto's name was dropped.

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry ma'am, we-we've just been so busy lately. The Cloud ninja's launched an attack on our forward scouting unit early this morning.

"There's triple the amount of people here than earlier! All of them were injured from their attack? How many Cloud ninja did they go against?"

The nurse paused as if the very question itself was so preposterous that it physical hurt her to hear it. She gave Sakura a once over again as if to make sure she really was who she said she was.

"You must be new to the forward base."

"Umm yea I guess, I've been here a few days, though I've mostly been in the lab with Kabuto sensei working on concoctions." Sakura answered. She didn't understand why her tenure at the facility mattered at all, it was just a simple question. The nurse nodded her head slowly as if her answer had made everything ok.

"It was just one man."

It was Sakura's turn to be physically assaulted by a statement.

"What? Are you serious? Just one man managed to injure at least 40 ninja's? There's no way."

The nurse nodded once again and motioned for Sakura to come closer. Once Sakura was closer the nurse leaned in and whispered to her.

"Part of the reason why we've never been able to beat Hidden Cloud completely is because of the way they fight. They don't believe in normal foot soldiers. Every ninja they have is of jounin level or above. They say they exile or kill any who can't pass their qualifications for becoming a jounin. There standard teams are usually only two people. But one guy in particular is infamous for strolling into battle single handedly.

Sakura's eyes grew wide as she listened to the tale. She knew the Cloud were strong, but this tale was bordering on the ridiculous.

"They say this one man strolls into battle with eight swords and cuts down anyone in front of him."

Sakura sat back a little and gave the nurse a puzzled look.

"Eight swords? That seems kind of, uh…stupid." The nurse laughed a little at this, and motioned for her to come forward again.

"Even crazier is they say he whistles and raps the whole time he's fighting."

"You're shitting me?"

"I swear on my mother's grave that's the truth."

Sakura officially had enough of this fairy tale and sat back up. She had wasted enough time with this nurse and her fancy stories. Surely she thought her to be some sort of fool.

"Yea ok, well I'm gonna go…uh apply this gel to some of the injured, thanks for the tale."

The nurse cocked her head to the side at Sakura's strange reaction.

"Well it's the truth, you just be careful if you go out there. The Cloud are stronger than we've been told."

Sakura rolled her eyes and looked behind her at the nurse.

"And does this famous whistling, rapping, eight sworded wonder have a name?"

"Yea, they say his name is Killer Bee."

Sakura had decided this nurse was officially fucking with her.

* * *

"ACHOO!"

Darui looked behind him to where Killer Bee was sitting.

"Bless You." He mumbled. They had been sitting in this tree for a few hours now on surveillance. The traffic of Uchiha scouts had thinned after Killer Bee's attack on them this morning. Hopefully they would fully retreat soon back into the snow covered mountains of the Land of Frost. Darui was sick of sitting in a tree watching people scurry by like ants. Being exposed to the elements and wind would surely wind up with them being sick with something. He hoped Bee didn't have the flu, in this tight of quarters he would surely catch it as well.

"Never worry Darui, have no fear,

That sneeze wasn't the flu, just so you knew.

Someone must have been thinking of me,

The great incredible Killer Bee"

Killer Bee threw up his hands with eight fingers held up, his trademark symbol and grinned.

Darui stared at him for a second then turned around back to his binoculars.

"I really hate you sometimes."


	4. Invasion

Sakura rubbed her aching neck as she leaned back in her leather chair. She had spent the better part of eight hours applying the healing gel to the injured ninjas in the trauma unit. Putting on her best nurse face was something she found easy to do, well at least for the first few hours. Seeing that many people in pain was harder than she could have ever imagined. Their pain and agony seemed to float through the room like a dense cloud of torture that she had to cross every time she moved. It was an experience she knew that she would never forget, and one she would never want to forget.

Now she was sitting in her brightly lit office, staring at all the paperwork she had to do and cursing her job ever so slightly. Her office was huge compared to the ones the other doctors and nurses had been givien, being the apprentice of Kabuto had its upsides. It was a square room that was arranged in a practical manner befitting her style. Her desk was to the north of the room with her bookshelf to the east for easy access. She had a large plush maroon colored couch against the south wall, her only real source of comfort during the long hours that the job demanded. The entry way was to the west wall with a number of pictures of friends and family arranged around the door, making it seem more like a gateway into her life than to an office.

The more she concentrated on the paperwork the harder it became to focus on it. Eventually she grew tired of her futile attempt at clerical duties and made her way to her couch. As soon as her back hit the couch she let out a tiny moan as her aching body thanked her for the much needed rest. Still though she couldn't get her mind away from the trauma unit, the injured men and their howls of pain. She had heard rumors about what it was like to work during war time, and while this was certainly was not war time, she could start to imagine the chaos that those times must have been.

However she had a more serious problem to attend to. When she had arrived back at her office she had a stack of procedure reports to go through and file. While she knew a lot of nurses would just pencil whip signatures and throw it on the out pile, she just couldn't bring herself to do it. It was everyone's duty to make sure the forward base was as tight as a drum and ran smoothly, the fate of numerous countries rested on them keeping the Hidden Cloud at bay.

However Sakura was beginning to see a strange pattern throughout the reports. She knew that they had a number of prisoners at the base, that sort of thing just came with the territory, but she was under the impression that after interrogation and debriefing they were shipped off. She however was seeing reports and requisition reports that seemed to hint at anything but that. The amount of money they were spending on food suggested far more than a few prisoners, even if they were being given generous serving sizes. Then there were the reports for tools and instruments that were only used in extreme surgeries such as amputations and autopsies. The odd thing though was that the reports didn't indicate that the supplies were going to any branch of the hospital. All the destinations were just initialed A.S, had Kabuto's signature and an inventory list of what was needed.

She had thought about going to Kabuto with this at first, but the more she thought about it the more she thought it would be better for her to do some investigating first. If this was a legitimate report then she would look foolish by bringing it up as an error and Kabuto did not tolerate stupidity. If it was a false report she would need some findings and evidence to show due cause as Kabuto did not tolerate accusations without proof.

Sakura lightly bit her lip as she thought about her options and potential game plan. After a moment of deep thought she had decided what she would do. She would personally go down to the holding cells in the morning and see with her own eyes the validity of the reports.

* * *

The trip had taken far longer than Naruto had anticipated it. Seizing a vessel had been all to easy, Hinata had distracted a guard while Neji slipped past and onto the boat. When the guard finally realized what was happening Hinata had already delivered a sharp blow to his head that rendered him unconscious. The real problem however had been their choice of destination. Naruto knew from his father's report that their normal landing spot on the Land of Lightning was no longer good. They wouldn't be repeating the same mistake by carelessly landing anywhere near the same spot. Instead they had chosen to sail up further northeast to the edge of the country.

This however had turned into a mixed bag of luck. While they had successfully landed on the northeastern edge of Lighting they quickly realized that the dense forest they had arrived at was not easy to push through. They had no real map of Lightning other than the ones Naruto had memorized long ago. There was no Hidden Cloud liaison to meet up with and guide them through the tangled forest of leaves and vines either. Survival training was all that was going to help them all get to their destination. Naruto however knew that eventually the Hidden Cloud would see and track their movements, stopping them once they got close to the mountain entrance of Hidden Cloud.

After two days of dredging through the jungle like forest of Lightning they were finally stopped by a group of Hidden Cloud ninja's being lead by one their elite Jounin, Samui. This was Naruto's first time meeting Samui in person and it honestly left him a bit speechless. Samui was a fair skinned woman with the greenest pair of eyes he'd ever seen in his life. Her almost white blond hair only made her eyes seem even more emerald colored. Her curvaceous body almost dared the eyes of men to wander its dangerous curves and to admire what looked like velvety smooth skin. But he had heard the stories of Samui's strength and wouldn't dare to be caught eyeing her. The results would be a potentially nasty death at the hands of a beautiful woman; he wondered to himself how Jiraiya hadn't been killed yet.

Samui's opening words had been less than pleasant. "What the hell are you doing here," she questioned her expression one of clear annoyance.

"Two of our members were captured during an attempted trip a week ago and we are here to rescue them at any cost." Naruto had weighed his words carefully and phrased them so that Samui understood that he wasn't leaving without Jiriaya and Tsunade.

Samui's brow deepened slightly as her jade colored eyes had almost seemed to pierce through him, judging his intent and trustworthiness. "We had reports of a battle between the Uchiha and an unknown force, I didn't realize it was your village."

Samui had looked from member to member of his ragtag rescue team as if taking in their battle worthiness. "Why on earth would you all risk sending a team to Hidden Cloud right now? Really what did you think was going to happen?"

Naruto's jaw had tightened at her accusation of blatant on their part. Through clenched teeth Naruto had grunted, "They came to warn you about the forward base the Uchiha were building and wanted to ally together to take it down. They risked their lives to help out a nation full of people who like to pretend they can this win this war on their own!" Hinata had lain a hand on his shoulder in the hopes of calming down his rising anger.

Samui smirked a little bit at Naruto's rising anger, "Oh you are certainly Minato Namikaze's son, all full of righteous indignation. Thanks to the fight between your team and the Uchiha we actually became aware of the base so I suppose some sort of thanks is in order."

Naruto had only been able to nod at her statement; it was taking everything he had to not explode with rage and "righteous indignation".

"Who was caught? Any of the guys we usually know, surely not Minato."

"Jiraiya and Tsunade were captured so that the rest, including my father, could escape unharmed."

Samui lost her smirk at hearing those two names. "What? Jiriaya? How could he possibly have been captured? What happened?"

Naruto had told her all that he knew at the time which honestly wasn't much. He hadn't thought about it until that moment but he had run off before even hearing the whole story. After hearing what had transpired Samui's face had turned stone cold serious. Whatever connection the pervy old man had made with Samui was one of deep respect; her reaction was akin to how Naruto had felt upon hearing the news. She had immediately pledged her support to their cause and proceeded to lead them toward the forward base camp.

Now they were moving at top speed toward the southwestern border of lighting to meet up with their scouting unit. Naruto wasn't sure what would be greeting them at this forward camp, but he would have no mercy on anyone that would do his family harm. Samui and her unit thankfully had guided them out from the dense forest they been in. Apparently Naruto and his unit had had the misfortune of entering through a section of Hidden Cloud that had the densest population of trees. The Land of Lightning was a series of mountains and valleys that all centered around the main mountain that Hidden Cloud was hidden in. If they hadn't run into Samui who knows how long they would have struggled to reach the end of the valley. Naruto shuddered to think of the all the time they could have wasted wandering around in that pit of trees.

They were now heading through a sort of prairie valley that was covered in an eerie and disorienting fog. Samui had cautioned them to stay near them at all times, getting lost in the fog was an all to easy endeavor. As they ran through the tall reeds of the valley Neji quickened his pace to come up along side of Naruto.

Neji gestured toward Samui and the units ahead of them, "Think we can trust them to take us to this forward base?"

Neji's question was a valid one, they had had few dealings with the Hidden Cloud in the past, the ones they did have always ended with them telling Sky to get lost. Usually in a much more rude and crude vernacular.

Naruto glanced at Neji and shrugged his shoulders, "I don't see why they would lie to us. This base is more of a threat to them then it is to us. If we attack it we take on most of the risk, I mean the Uchiha are going to expect the Cloud to catch on eventually. We can assume that their ready for a full on fight with Cloud's best, which actually gives us an advantage."

Neji nodded, " The Hidden Cloud are mainly straight up melee fighters, they're not big on stealth attacks, genjutsu or the like. They'll most likely have a force that consists of defensive fighters or unconventional jutsu users to offset the Cloud's sheer brute strength. We however are more akin to a guerilla style approach which while not uncommon, is not something they're not watching for as vigilantly.

Naruto glanced back behind them toward their other members, "And that's exactly why we'll need her to really make this work."

Neji followed his gesture and seemed to mull over what Naruto was angling at. Naruto was referring to Tenten; she was perhaps the best long range jutsu user in all of Sky. But she could be unpredictable at times and was almost impossible to control.

Neji motioned to Tenten to come closer and with a few hops she came up to the left of Neji and Naruto.

"What do you need Neji?" she asked, all business as usual.

"We need your long range skills once we get to the forward base. Our assumption is that the Uchiha are expecting a typical Hidden Cloud attack, and thus leaving them open to a more COVERT long distance assault." Neji had emphasized the word covert to Tenten, something that may have been an insult to anyone else, but for Tenten was standard practice.

Naruto wondered what Tenten had been like before her and her clan had arrived to their country. Had she been a girl full of energy and life? Maybe she had been a bit of a spoiled princess use to getting her way all the time. Whatever she had been it seemed to be all but dead. Tenten clan's had tried to migrate into the Land of Fire several years ago from a foreign country. Because they had come from so far away they had had no idea how the Uchiha ran things. The clan had meet with some officials in Hidden Leaf in the hopes of being allowed to settle their. But somehow they had displeased the wrong man and instead were ordered to be executed in the middle of the night. Tenten had witnessed hundreds of her friends and family be slaughtered in the middle of the night by Akatsuki. Tenten herself would have been dead if her eldest sister hadn't snatched her up, screaming and crying, and bolted off into the forest. However her sister died shortly after from injuries incurred during their escape and young Tenten was forced to fend for herself for who knows how long.

It was by chance that she had run into an ally of the Sky positioned in the Land of Fire. Shortly after that Tenten had come to Sky to live with the village and become a ninja. Very few people knew anything about Tenten, in fact everything Naruto knew he had heard from Neji. Out of everyone in the entire village, Neji was the only one she really responded too, and he was the only one she had told her history to. At first they had tried to meld Tenten into a traditional 4 man team, but that was a quickly revealed to be a mistake. She had never told Neji how long she had had to fend for herself in the woods fighting off animals and enemies alike. But somewhere along the way she had lost her right eye, developed deadly guerilla tactics and gained survival skills. This however had made her great for solo missions and awful for team based assignments. She was just as liable to sneak off on her own to complete the mission as she was to physically start a fight with a team member over an order. Over time Neji had learned how to give Tenten orders without it causing an altercation and thus had become her unofficial handler. Hinata thought Tenten had a crush on Neji, a remark that hadn't been confirmed or denied. Either way, Naruto would have to use their strange relationship to his advantage.

Tenten nodded in agreement to Neji's request. "Just tell me when you need me." And with that she slipped back into formation with the rest of the unit.

Naruto shook his head as the slender sniper retreated. "You are truly the only person she respects in our village. I don't know how you've managed it man but bravo."

Neji gave a half shrug, "I don't mind it. She's serious, logical and keeps me on my toes."

Naruto blinked at Neji's explanation of her behavior. "Umm what? Do you not remember how she tried to kill you when you two first sparred?"

The half shrug returned, "Eh she just didn't know how to hold back and besides that was one of the best spares I've ever had. She's a top notch ninja, I like that."

Naruto smirked, "Admit it; you think she's hot in a Going-to-eat-you-like-a-praying-mantis-sort-of-way-after-sex way."

Neji glanced back at Tenten in the distance, "Nothing wrong with that."

Naruto blinked at Neji's surprise honesty. "It's the patch isn't it?"

"What?"

"It's like a sexy pirate thing going on."

"Shut your mouth Naruto."

"You gonna swab her deck Neji?"

"You're an ass you know that?"

"She gonna walk your plank matey?"

"Shut your face or I'm going to tell her you just called her a foreign one eyed pirate."

Naruto shut up.

* * *

Sakura made her way through the dimly lit halls of a section of the forward base that wasn't on the map. As she had gone through the reports she had finally tracked and identified a lead. She had attached a tiny bit of chakra to one of the food trays that she had figured out was going down to the prisoners. As she had worried, when she followed the chakra trail it led her to a section of the base that she had never seen before.

While she didn't think that prisoners deserved five star accommodations, this prison bordered on the cruel. There seemed to be no source of running water anywhere and the smell of decaying flesh mingled with the rank smell of human waste. Ever step she took seemed to drag her further into what she could only think of as purgatory.

Each cell only had a letter and number associated with it. She quickly realized that some of the markings matched up with surgery reports that she had received. Some of the cells were empty but most had a prisoner inside of them. She could only tell this because of the little card that was attached to each door. In a fashion similar to a triage, green cards were for live prisoners and red was what she could only assume to be dead or vacant.

As she moved further down the hall she was stopped in her tracks by a soul piercing cry. Against her better nature Sakura ran toward the source of the sound, having to take several turns to reach it. As she approached the cries of help she could see that one prison cell was wide open. Sakura slowed her approach and assumed a battle stance in case of potential danger. She didn't know what to expect as she inched closer toward the open door. Did she happen to stumble across a potential prison escape?

A figured stumbled out the door cursing and crying out with every step. As she approached she realized that it was one of the regular guards, Renku. He was bleeding profusely from his face,though she couldn't see from where as he had his hand pressed tightly against his face.

"OH MY GOD! Renku what happened? Are you okay?"

Renku jumped at her sudden voice, in his cries of pain he had failed to see her approach.

"Th..tha…that BITCH just bite off a chunk of my FUCKING LIP!" he cried out.

"Here let me take a look at it, move your hand." She gestured for him to lower his hand away from his face so she could see the wound. As Renku lowered his hand from his face she could see the trail of blood streaming down his jaw. As she got closer to look at it in the light she gasped at what she saw. Almost his entire bottom lip had been bitten off.

"Oh! Oh my god! We have to get you up to surgery right now! We-we need the part that was bitten off to reattach it. Where is it?"

Renku gestured toward the open cell. "It's somewhere in there, but I ain't going in there. That crazy bitch, that BITCH!," he yelled out as he stumbled forward and down the hall.

Sakura took a deep breath and stepped toward the cell, uncertain of what to expect. In the dark cell she could barely make out the form of what appeared to be a blond woman. As she neared the woman she could see that something was clearly not right. The woman's hands and feet were bound and she had a collar around her neck that was connected to a chain that was affixed to the floor. More disturbingly she saw that the woman's pants were pulled down almost to her ankles, and her shirt had been torn upon leaving her ample breasts exposed. The woman's face was bruised on the left side as if someone had punched her and blood was streaking down her mouth.

Sakura forgot all her concerns and rushed to the prisoner's side. "Oh god, what happened? Are you ok? What's your name dear? I can't believe he was…oh my god are ok? What happened?" Tears started streaming down Sakura's face at what she was witnessing. All she kept thinking was how could someone do this?

The blonde prisoner sat up a little bit and spit out something onto the ground in front of her. It was what was left of Renku's bottom lip.

The prisoner gave a bloody smile, "My name is Tsunade and I'm fine." She laughed and her smile was replaced with a smirk, "He's lucky I only got his lip, I was aiming for his throat."


	5. Surgery

"Have you begun the experiments on our prisoners yet?"

Kabuto's face split open with a grin as soon as he heard the voice behind him. He slowly turned around and bowed to his visitor.

"Lord Orochimaru, I have. I started on two of the hidden cloud scouts we caught a week ago. So far it seems as if your hypothesis was correct. Though the strength of the subjects mind seems to vary our results, further testing will show if this trend holds true."

A sinister grin spread across the face of the tall slender man. He walked across the lab in a way that could only be described as slithering. Orochimaru's snake like tendencies unnerved nearly everyone who worked around him. To everyone that is except Kabuto. He couldn't help but tremble ever so slightly in the presence of his genius. His very aura seemed to pierce through him, challenging him to rise up and become greatness. For his lord Kabuto would do anything, and often times he did.

"Good good. Make sure you keep the results as hidden as possible, I want to keep this experiment to ourselves for a while." Orochimaru's words seemed to slither out as he spoke them. Kabuto could imagine the words squirming through the air and into his very ears.

"Yes of course my lord, but are you leaving again? Why you just arrived here? Won't you stay for a while and watch, it'll be delightful?" Kabuto pleaded. He hadn't seen Orochimaru in a few weeks and wanted so desperately to be near him, to have him watch over the experiments and to hear his insight, to hear his voice for just a little while longer.

Orochimaru's face turned sullen at the question, "The Uchiha wish to see me. They wish me to join up with their Akatsuki for a mission. How I detest that group. Mindless fools, all of them."

"Soon lord we'll have what we need, and then we won't need them anymore."

Orochimaru looked down upon Kabuto like a snake gazing at prey. Kabuto shuddered with pleasure at his stare, fighting hard the urge to lick his lips with anticipation.

"Yessss my dear pupil. Soon we will kill them all."

* * *

Sakura was squarely between a rock and a hard place now. She couldn't just take the prisoner out of the top secret dungeon that she wasn't even supposed to know about, but she couldn't just leave her here in this condition.

"Well kid ya gonna help me or stare at me?"

The brash comment snapped Sakura out of her thoughts. She realized that she had been staring at the women while she had been thinking about her next course of action.

"I- I'm sorry," was all she managed to stutter out. Sakura knelt down beside the women to help her pull her pants back up. She cursed herself for pausing to worry about the ramifications when there was obviously a woman in need of help. Had she been out here for so long that she had forgotten her oath as a doctor?

"Eh kid ya never told me what your name was."

Sakura looked up and into the woman's hazel eyes. There was no sign of fear in them, no shame, no embarrassment, only a sense of quiet fire and defiance. How could this woman be so calm and collected after what must have just happened.

"I'm sorry, my-my name is Sakura." Sakura mentally slapped herself for her sudden timid nature. Here was this woman who had just been assaulted and possibly raped, acting almost cavalier while she was acting timid and meek.

"Sakura hmmm, pretty name." The woman looked her up and down as if SHE was the one had been injured. "Shame my grandson isn't around; he would like a pretty thing like you."

Sakura couldn't help but blush at the sudden compliment. What sort of messed up world had she stepped into? How can she be so collected? No matter how Sakura tried to wrap her mind around it, it just didn't make sense. She finished buttoning up what was left of the woman's shirt and then sat back a bit.

"Are you feeling ok ma'am? I should get you to the infirmary to get you checked out." Even though that's what came out of her mouth, Sakura still hadn't figured out how she would actually get her to the infirmary yet.

"Don't call me ma'am. Ever. My name is Tsunade. Not Grandma or granny, or old lady or ma'am. Tsunade, that's it."

Sakura chuckled at the comment until she could see the deadly seriousness in the woman's eyes.

"I'm sorry yes, ma-Tsunade." The role reversal was still in effect apparently.

Tsunade stared at Sakura for a minute as if trying to decide her worth in life. The stare was unsettling to say the least and Sakura squirmed a little bit as she waited for the woman to respond to her question.

"I know what you're thinking and no he didn't rape me. Pathetic little shit like him could barely muster up enough manhood to ruffle my hair. Got his lip when he decided he'd try to kiss me. Fucking dumbass. Who tries to kiss a woman your about to try and rape?" Tsunade chuckled to herself at the thought of his foolishness.

Sakura wasn't sure if she believed Tsunade's story but she wasn't dumb enough to say that to her face. The woman's lip was bruised and slightly bleeding and the welt across the left side of her face would only swell up in time. There was no telling if she had other cuts and bruises on her where she couldn't see.

"Ok….but we should still get to the infirmary and get you looked at"

"Dear, I think you've forgotten that I'm the prisoner here. Injuries are just part of the deal." Tsunade stated with a shrug.

In all honesty Sakura did forget for a moment that she was a prisoner, a prisoner she knew nothing about. Her foolishness just knew no bounds today. She should be following Renku and making sure his lip was re-attached correctly. But honestly after what she had just seen she wasn't sure if she really wanted to. How many other women prisoners did he assault? She would have to figure out how to approach Kabuto about what she had found.

Sakura slapped her forehead at that last thought. She had totally forgotten about her original reason for coming to this secret prison. She had to figure out who was involved first before she ran off to Kabuto about it. So far she didn't know much more now other than the fact that the guards apparently think they can do whatever they want to when no one is looking. Sakura leaned back against the cold stone of the prison wall and thought to herself for a moment.

"I wonder if my husband is ok, that foolish man can't live proper without me around."

Sakura was jarred from her thoughts by Tsunade's sudden question. Sakura sat back up straight, rubbing her newly formed headache.

"The other Senju ninja? I would imagine that he's down here in this labyrinth somewhere," Sakura mumbled out loud. Tsunade's question brought up a good point, how many people were in this secret prison? How many prisoners had been injured by sick guards like Renku? Sakura shuddered at the thought of more instances like the one she had witnessed.

Sakura stood up and brushed the dust from her skirt, she mentally made a note that she was glad she was wearing an old throwaway outfit. She had decided what she was going to do about this current situation, now all she could do was hope it worked out.

"I'm just going to have to bring my kit and patch you up down here, that way I don't risk anyone knowing that I know about this hidden prison."

"I told you I don't need any help, I'll –"

"I'll have to make a couple trips, that bruise could use some ointment and it looks like you're getting chafed from your restraints. "

"Dear really I'm fi—"

"Maybe a fresh change of clothes as well, no woman should ever be forced to wear…however old those clothes are.."

"DAMMIT GIRL LISTEN TO ME, I DON'T NEED YOUR FUCKING PITY!"

Tsunade's burst of rage froze Sakura for a second. The two women crossed eyes for a moment in a battle of wills. Two powerfully stubborn women locked in a fierce duel to determine the outcome. Luckily Sakura had an ace up her sleeve.

Sakura grinned slightly, "And a hot bath, with bath salts…"

Tsunade lost a little of her fire.

"And a bottle of sake to drink while you soak."

Tsunade sighed and sat back. Through narrowed lids she glared at Sakura with hawk like brown eyes. After a moment the harsh look left her eyes and she seemed to resign herself to the situation.

"Your much sneakier then I gave you credit little girl." Tsunade let out with a sigh.

As Sakura started to walk toward the door she stopped and looked back at the captured Senju.

"I just know what a lady needs in a time of stress" she explained with a smile.

"Yea well someone needs to teach that to my husband."

* * *

The human body never ceased to amuse Kabuto, no matter how much he studied it he always found new ways for it to surprise him. The human body was so fragile; it offered virtually no protection from the elements or any object with an edge. It took little to no effort to break the skin and cause bleeding. Then on top of that it took so long for the body to heal from major injuries without help. What kind of twisted god created the human body?

On the other hand you did have the potential of the body. Muscles that always had an extra capacity for strength when needed, but could only be tapped in times of emergency. And adrenaline, oh how loved adrenaline, the body's own natural turbo button.

Kabuto giggled to himself as he poked and prodded the open body before him. . Dressed in favorite lab coat and gloves he couldn't help but feel a little godly at the moment. He was currently in his lab in front of his coroners table. The smooth and polished metal was always a stark comparison to the bodies that often populated the table. This time was no exception, an average sized male lay upon his table this day. The skin, flesh and muscle had been cut down the middle of the chest area in a Y shaped pattern. Each flap had been carefully folded and pinned back so that the chest cavity was fully exposed. There was entirely too much red in the human body, if he could recreate anything it would be the color. The chest cavity should be a nice hue of navy blue with a splash of maroon, something festive. How splendid would it be if each organ had its own unique color instead of the salmon and grey that dominated most of them. Maybe that would be the next jutsu he worked on after this experiment. A jutsu that would color code a person's innards by system.

There was a sudden explosion of activity to his left as the double doors to his lab slammed open. What came rushing in was one of the guards, Renku. Kabuto found this man exceptionally boorish and dull, he honestly was only kept around because of his dedication to his duty. Although Kabuto knew very well it was because he enjoyed being in control of others. The man was a sadist which ordinarily would have entertained Kabuto if it wasn't for the fact that Renku was just so dumb about it. Kabuto sighed at this sudden distraction and sat down his scalpel.

"This had better well be good Renku, your interrupting me from a very important experiment." Now that Kabuto wasn't staring at the body on his table he was able to take in Renku for the first time. The man was clearly injured; it seemed as if part of his lower lip was gone. More importantly the man was bleeding all over his floor, a floor he had just shined to perfection. Kabuto was willing to bet he had tracked blood all throughout the hallway as well.

"Kabuto! FUCK MAN! This bitch fucking attacked me down in the prison, you gotta help me man. Fix me up doc, or something."

Why did people insist on shortening the title of doctor? Doc sounded so curt and sloppy; not at all something he wanted to be called. The word made him want to kill, kill whoever would dare butcher such an honorable title. Slightly annoyed now, Kabuto stepped closer to the buffoon in front of him.

"Hmm it appears you're missing a rather large piece of your labium inferius." Renku had such an ugly face on top of his stupidity. It hardly inspired Kabuto to do anything other than to mock him.

"What? My lip man, she bit off my fucking lip man! I'm gonna throttle that bitch fucking good!"

On top of that every other word that came out of this miscreant's mouth was foul. Kabuto wasn't turned off by foul language, it was effective when used in short supply and with proper emphasis. Renku however used them as if they were a part of written language, a substitution for real words. On top of that he apparently didn't even know what the proper name for lower lip was.

"That's what I said Renku, you really need to start reading something that doesn't have pictures in it. It would do you wonders my foul mouthed friend. Now what would you have me do about it, and make it quick, your bleeding all over my floor."

Renku paused at the remark and gave Kabuto a puzzled look, "I want you to fix me up! That Sakura bitch was more interested in that Senju whore than fixing me."

Kabuto struck out as fast as a cobra and grabbed Renku by the collar, pulling him close. "What do you mean by Sakura, where were you and what did you do? And before you think about trying to lie remember that I will find out and the punishment for liars is very severe."

Renku's eyes grew wide as he realized he had made a fatal mistake. His breathing started to increase, his pupils dilating ever so slightly. Kabuto loved how the emotion of fear could change the body so quickly and with utter predictability.

"I..I was in the prison about to have a go at that Senju slut we got locked up down there. I mean she was practically begging for it with that body of hers so I thought I'd show her what she's been missin at home ya know."

Kabuto's grip tightened around the man's collar in response to his needless inflation. Renku luckily got the subtle hint and quickly jumped forward in his story.

"Anyway I reached down to kiss her and she bit off my fucking lip man! Like a gawddamn animal! Then as I was running out of there I ran into that Sakura bitch. She told me to go along like I was trash, I hate that whore, always running around like she's special."

Kabuto felt wetness on his hand and realized that Renku's blood was dripping on to his gloved hand and lab coat. Not only had this mere ant had the nerve to run in here looking for medical attention, but now he was dripping his dirty blood on everything. He wondered what color he would make Renku's intestines before he let them spill onto the floor. He stopped and took a breath, composing himself before he committed to killing the guard. He reached out and slapped the guard across the mouth, purposely hitting his open wound.

Renku roared in pain as the slap hit home, nailing him across the face. Kabuto waited for Renku's yell to taper off and grabbed him by the chin. He waited for Renku's eyes to lock with his before he spoke.

"Did I not tell you not to touch the two Senju ninja's? Did I not explicitly tell you not to touch or harm either one of them? Do I have to write out specific clauses that include not trying to rape one of our future experiments?"

"Yea I know but I didn't think it do any harm to-"

Kabuto slapped the man again across the face with his right hand, harder this time. Renku cried out in pain, his eyes starting to tear up.

"Did I say I wanted to hear your pathetic excuses you feeble minded idiot? Did I? DID I!"

"No you didn't doc, I just thought—"

Kabuto slapped the man again with a thunderous clap. Renku's knees were starting to wobble from the pain.

Forest green. That's the color he would make Renku's intestines before he let them spill out of his lower abdomen. Green like the needles of a coniferous tree. Or green like a head of leafy lettuce. A salad did sound good, perhaps that what was he would have for lunch. He was quite hungry at the moment. Now the man was starting to sob, did this man have no shame?

Kabuto stared at him for a second as he remembered something. "Why was Sakura there? Why was she in Section S? She shouldn't even know of that place.."

"I…I don't know, she…she just appeared." Renku stuttered between sobs of pain.

Kabuto's face turned sour at the guards lack of credible explanation. He wasn't ready to show Sakura Section S yet, he hadn't molded her into that yet. There was a good chance he would have to kill her if she reacted badly to the prison. Which would be a shame because she was really starting to grow on him. She was like a human sponge for information, her need to be with Sasuke made her a great student. The carrot that dangled in front of her was one she had put on the hook herself and it didn't get any better than that. Her intestines were most likely a royal purple.

Kabuto let go of the man's collar and shoved him backwards. "You may go now. Luckily for you I don't have the patience to screen and train another guard for Section S. My lack of time saved your life this day, savor your minor victory. Now be gone before I change my mind."

Renku stared blankly at Kabuto for a second in disbelief, "But…but what about my lip doc?" Renku said it so meekly that Kabuto almost didn't even hear him.

Kabuto made his way back to his table and the body lying across it. Kabuto stopped and looked back over at the guard.

"Your lip shall stay like that as punishment for defying my orders. You shall not speak or interact with the prisoners in any way other than transport and feeding. You will also not speak of this to anyone. If someone asks you about your injury you best tell them you were hurt in a skirmish with the Senju. You better make it the best lie you've ever told, because if anyone asks about Section S it will be you lying across this table. As far as Sakura is concerned you did not see her and will stick with that story until your dying breath. And then tonight when I've left you will come back and clean up all the blood you've trekked through my department," Kabuto barked. The fact that he even had to explain this to Renku gave him enough reason to kill him where he stood.

Renku, defeated, shuffled toward the door. He was still bleeding all over the polished marble.

"Oh and Renku, you will address me by doctor or sir from now on. If you ever call me doc or any other shorthand for doctor I will gut you like a fish and FUCK your chest cavity while you still breath." Kabuto smiled to himself a little bit, that was how you effectively used foul language.

As the door shut behind Renku, Kabuto took a deep breath and thought about his little apprentice. He didn't know how Sakura found out about Section S so soon. She was highly intelligent and he knew she would find out eventually, but not before he had tainted her enough as to where she would welcome what he was doing it. The way it stood now he might have to kill her before that day. It was a shame he was really looking forward to doing dissections with her.

Kabuto looked down at the body lying on his table. He put a finger tip to its forehead and let out a little bit of chakra. He waited a second and then slapped it across the face.

"WAKE UP!" With a startle the man woke up out of the chakra induced coma he had been in. The man's eyes slowly started to take in the surroundings. As it did they started to grow wide as he realized the situation he was in.

"I had no intention of having you awake during this procedure. I was in a rather peaceful mood and only wanted silence while I worked." Kabuto calmly retrieved his scalpel from the table, "But unfortunately for you I'm in a rather poor mood now, bad news and all. I've paralyzed your body from the neck down so you can't actually move, but you will feel everything. So now all I want to hear is your howls of horror echoing throughout this lab while I cut your head open, yes that would be lovely.

The man looked down to see his chest cavity exposed and his lip began to tremble.

"Why…why are you doing this?" the man questioned as tears welled up in his eyes, his voice horsed with fear.

Kabuto stared blankly at the man for a second, his head turning sideways in question. "Why? Why am I doing this?" Kabuto laughed out loud as he considered the question.

"Oh my what a great question! Why am I doing this? Because live dissection is so much fun silly." Kabuto methodically began to slice into the man's forehead.

"Now scream for me."


End file.
